Luận Văn A Contrastive Analysis between Simple Sentences in English and Vietnamese

INTRODUCTION
1. The Background of the Study
English is not the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of speakers but it is the most widespread language all over the world. English is the major language of news and information, maritime communication and international air traffic control. English is used even for internal air traffic control in countries where it is not a native language. In many countries, English has been used as an official language in universities, business, research and all the sciences in the world. Thus English is an international language.
Vietnam has gone through renovation to being a market economy and established diplomatic relations with America and many other foreign countries. All this helped attract a considerable number of English-speaking visitors to Vietnam as tourists and businessmen. Social demands have made English emergent as the language for broader communication and cooperation. Furthermore, English has facilitated economic cooperation and development with an ever greater influx of foreign investment, mostly from English speaking countries. In addition, English has helped enhance exchange and growth, especially in higher education. Thousands of university students and post-graduate learners have traveled overseas to study in English speaking countries. Moreover, in the last few years, hundreds of language centers have been established all over the country, with an overwhelming majority of learners studying English. This fact proves the importance of English as well as teaching and learning English.
When learning any foreign languages, the language learners have to encounter a great number of difficulties due to the differences between the learners’ mother tongue and the foreign languages. Learners have made many mistakes in using simple sentences. In order to help Vietnamese learners of English overcome these difficulties, researches on contrastive analysis of the simple sentences in English and Vietnamese should be done. There have been many researches on simple sentences so far. However, the problems posed for Vietnamese learners of English concerning contrastive analysis of simple sentences have not yet been adequately investigated. Therefore, a study on contrastive analysis of simple sentences in English and Vietnamese is believed to be of great importance and significance. The findings from the research would partly help learners of English to avoid mistakes, hence cultural shock and unnatural communication will be minimized.
2. The Aims of the Study
Within the framework of an M.A. thesis, “A Contrastive Analysis of Adverbial clauses in English and Vietnamese” is mainly aimed at:
- Describing typical features of English adverbial clause.
- Describing typical features of Vietnamese adverbial clause.
- Finding out major similarities and differences in adverbial clause between Vietnamese and English.
3. The Objectives of the Study
To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer the following questions: What are the similarities and differences of simple sentences in English and Vietnamese?
4. The Object of the Study
The object of the study is simple sentences in English and Vietnamese.
5. The Scope of the Study
The study “A Contrastive Analysis between Simple Sentences in English and Vietnamese” focuses on simple sentence in English and Vietnamese equivalents within the frame of definition, sentence elements and structure of simple sentences. But only those in terms of syntactic function will be fully discussed, others will be suggested for further study.
According to communicative purpose, there are four kinds of simple sentences. They are statement, question, command and exclamation. Each kind of simple sentence has two forms: affirmative and negative. However in this study, we only focus on the affirmative statements.
6. The Methods of the Study
To fulfill the aims of the study, the main methods used for study is contrastive, while the statistical, generalized, descriptive are also used. The descriptive and contrastive are primarily concerned with the description and the comparison of the sentences. The description will be illustrated with the two languages: English and Vietnamese. Examples are selected from different sources, but primarily from short stories in English and Vietnamese such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling, Perfect Spy by Larry Berman, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Tình yêu Gia đình Sự nghiệp-Tự truyện của Nguyễn Thị Sơn, Nguyễn Công Hoan, Nam Cao Examples from grammar books written by famous grammarians are also taken as the source for illustration.
The description of the sentence is based on the categories and definitions in various traditional studies, but mainly in Quirk et al. (1985), Leech & Svartvik (1975), Cobuild (1991), and Delahunty & Garvey (1994). The invaluable reference sources in Vietnamese include the following publications: Tran Trong Kim (1941), Truong Van Chinh & Nguyen Hien Le (1963), Nguyen Kim Than (1964), Hoang Trong Phien (1980), Le Can et al. (1983), Diep Quang Ban (1986), Cao Xuan Hao (1991), Hoang Van Van (2002), Diep Quang Ban (2004), Tran Ngoc Dung (2010). Apart from those publications named above, other studies are also consulted when necessary.
7. The Significance of the Study
Problems associated with grammar in general and simple sentences in particular often exist during the study of English language. Therefore, mistakes are not easily excluded. In this research, we wish to provide readers with an insight into English simple sentences. Furthermore, we will also make a contrastive analysis between English simple sentences and Vietnamese equivalents. Expectantly, this study could help Vietnamese learners of English to avoid their mistakes when using simple sentences in specific cases.
8. The Design of the Study
The thesis consists of three main parts: the introduction, the content and the conclusion.
The content of the thesis consists of two chapters as follows:
Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical background of the study.
Chapter 2 deals with the contrastive analysis between simple sentences in English and Vietnamese.